Abortion, redefining marriage take center-stage on Democratic convention’s opening day

CHARLOTTE, September 5, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Facing steep unemployment, a $16 trillion deficit, and the likelihood of another negative jobs report looming at week’s end, the Democratic party fashioned much of the opening day of the 2012 Democratic National Convention around ensuring access to abortion and support for same-sex “marriage.”

The message came from the movement’s leaders, as DNC delegates heard from outgoing NARAL Pro-Choice America President Nancy Keenan. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards is also scheduled to address the convention today.

“Women in America cannot trust Mitt Romney,” Keenan said. “He would repeal ObamaCare,” which would take away “the law’s near-universal coverage of birth control.” This includes coverage, at no co-pay, of abortifacients such as Ella and Plan B.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who succeeded Mitt Romney in office, offered pointed remarks on abortion and gay rights. Freedom, he said, means that women have the right to terminate an “unwanted pregnancy” and people have an open vista of choices when making their “decision about whom to marry.”

“This is the president who ended ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’ so that love of country, not love of another, determines fitness for military service,” he said. Patrick tied these issues to the national well-being, saying, “We believe that we owe the next generation a better country than we found.”

In the highlight of the evening, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered a speech so polished, “she almost makes you forget that her husband supports killing babies and destroying natural marriage,” said pro-life leader Alveda King. “Almost.”

However, Michelle drove the point home herself, saying that Barack “believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care…that’s what my husband stands for.”

She added that Obama supported extending privileges to groups regardless of “who we love,” a reference to his support for redefining marriage, as well as signing a “hate crimes” bill and revoking the military’s historic ban on open homosexuality in the service.

Mrs. Obama called Democrats to wage an “unyielding struggle” for these social issues. “Change is hard, and change is slow, and it never happens all at once,” she said. “But eventually we get there. We always do.”

The opening day of the national convention, which will renominate Barack Obama as president at the end of the week, also featured a Planned Parenthood rally Monday starring Sandra Fluke and Pillamina, a woman dressed as a box of contraceptive pills.